Recently, I was fortunate to represent PebblePad at the student-run Doctors of Physiotherapy conference at University of Melbourne. The 2024 graduating students delivered final assessment presentations and capstone projects, and were inspired by invited speakers as they counted down their last hours at uni. The conference theme was ‘Health Beyond Tomorrow’, and I feel confident that our future aches, pains and strains are in good hands!
After the event, I sat down with Elise Martin, Vivianne Phung and Matthew O’Sullivan of the student organising committee to discuss their learning journey with PebblePad. They reflected on their time using the platform throughout their master’s degree, how they could continue to use their free alumni accounts, and what the future holds for them now.
What follows are highlights from this conversation that reminded me of the importance of Purpose and understanding Why. These are not new notions – but ones we should all constantly re-visit as we adopt new features, plan learning activities, promote and undertake reflection, and continually develop/iterate/re-invent our own sense of self as professionals.
It was an absolute pleasure to work with the student organising committee while preparing for the conference and this blog post. So, without further ado, let’s hear from them!
Using PebblePad to support learning and assessment throughout a degree program
For the three-year Masters of Physiotherapy degree, the teaching team wanted the students to develop a sense of who they were becoming and how they were developing in alignment with the professional standards in Australia. With the plan for the final assessment to be a Professional Portfolio, students were introduced to PebblePad from the first year, which they say helped them to create, collect and curate their work over time.
Matthew: I like how [PebblePad] is quite structured. For me personally, there’s only so many things that I could choose from. I used all the resources available [for] writing your own ideas and you’re bringing your own images, videos, etc., but it was relatively structured, which personally I quite like.
Elise: PebblePad provided structure via various templates, making assessment tasks easier to navigate and less overwhelming to work through.
Matthew: One of the big things I really liked was [that my] assets uploaded throughout the three years were all in one place. It’s not like I had to go looking through my computer – it was all there. We could then look back on what had worked or what we got feedback on [where] we’d done well or could’ve done better.
Vivianne: For the ePortfolio assessment, I found it easy to go through the past three years and all the assessments, dates and which subject it was linked to. I think it was a very, very useful feature that I wouldn’t have realised if it wasn’t for the big ePortfolio assessment.
Ah reflection… it’s hard, but necessary (and PebblePad helped the students through it)
As is common in health disciplines, reflection played a large role in assessment tasks for this program. With many students coming from undergraduate courses where reflective learning was not a focus, time was required to help them understand not only how to reflect – but why. The default and custom templates used in PebblePad guided students through their reflective writing, while the staff provided the professional context for reflection such as post-consultation debriefing meetings.
Matthew: I think it’s been quite good because often there are reflections structured in PebblePad [with] different prompting questions. As opposed to a [blank] document to submit, assignments have been quite well structured through that reflection process, which I personally think is quite helpful.
Vivianne: Being explicitly assessed on reflection was unique in this program and was a new experience. The teaching staff have created really good formats and structures for us to follow. The PebblePad templates are helpful – and academics have referred to the ‘What, So What, Now What?’ template as a good guide.
Elise: [The PebblePad platform] provides a location where I can reflect on my university experiences and these reflections remind me how far I’ve come from [my] first year to my final year of study.
PebblePad for assessment is good – but what’s in it for students?
As with most students studying at an institution that has a rich technology ecosystem, our trio of students were asked to use different learning technologies for different assignments, noting they are usually “just another place to type down my assignment and submit it and forget about it,” says Matthew. However, they found using PebblePad over time was a different experience, one where they had more agency to create, reflect and represent themselves.
Matthew: When you’re using the same platform over and over in different ways or being asked to [do] different things, you can see what it can do. Dr Karen Donald (former Associate Professor at UoM) was a big part of our course and she [encouraged us] to do our own portfolios beyond just assessments. With the big portfolio we did at the end of this year, [we were] free to [creatively] use the platform how we wanted to meet the requirements.
Elise: I really enjoy writing [so I found] the blog tool allowed me to document my experiences or discuss a physiotherapy-related topic to consolidate my learning. It would be great to allow for [a] little bit more creativity in the portfolios – like being able to place more ‘blocks’ next to each other and/or move [them] around, or to add PDFs/documents to portfolios without just being able to embed a link. [PebblePad] allows you to discover your creativity.
Vivianne: It would have been towards the middle of this year [when] I realised that actually the Portfolio [and] PebblePad platform were really useful. I think [there was a] realisation that we have the freedom to make anything that we wanted. The benefit of the [final ePortfolio] assessment was that the brief was loose, allowing us to showcase our creativity.
What’s next for the students and PebblePad?
With newly minted alumni personal accounts, our graduates can continue to use PebblePad after graduation. They were happy to hear that they will retain all their work and assets accumulated throughout their studies at University of Melbourne, and say they want to explore new and ongoing uses.
From logging their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and collecting evidence for their annual registration processes to sharing content with collaborators, researchers and patients, our graduates can continue to create pages, portfolios, templates, blogs, and so much more.
Vivianne: I do think it is something that will be really useful, especially [for] asset logging. I think it’s like a cloud where it’s specifically for learning. I have a Google Drive or a Dropbox that can be filled with anything, [but] I know that PebblePad is a platform specifically for learning and for the professional side of things. So, I think it’s really good to segregate personal and professional, and to have this platform specifically for my professional life.
Elise: I plan to create a logbook where I can keep track of my CPD. Using PebblePocket will [give me] easy access to [create] my CPD [records], especially when on the go – and using tags will allow me to navigate my CPD easier. [I may use] portfolios where I can collate my professional development, resources, CPD and CV.
Matthew: As part of our [Physiotherapy professional] registration, we have to keep doing CPD, and [PebblePad] is a good place to keep everything in one space and keep a record of everything you’ve done. If you’re going to be doing a presentation or an interview, it’s all there and you can draw on it. So, I think that’s probably something that I’ll use it for.
Advice for educators when using PebblePad with their students
Finally, I asked the students if they had any advice for teaching teams or learning designers when incorporating PebblePad into student centred learning and competency based assessment activities. They agreed that being clear on the purpose of PebblePad is important, as well as outlining how it can be used and providing examples for inspiration.
Vivianne: I think from the beginning, explaining what you can and can’t do with the platform would be very useful. I think being transparent [about how it can be used] is important to get students onboard to begin with.
Elise: [I would advise students] to play around with the features. There’s so much to explore and make use of – I am still discovering its span.
Matthew: Early on there was a fair bit of emphasis placed on how to use the platform, but I think we figured out what it was capable of quite quickly. So, [focus on] telling people [about] reflection and ideas of what to reflect on.
Vivianne: I would also appreciate having some examples. It isn’t about telling people how to do it but giving people inspiration [on] how to reflect or formatting in PebblePad. [Providing inspiration] so that all our ePortfolios don’t look the same. I think people would appreciate [that].
Continuing our learning journeys
It is obvious that these freshly graduated students not only have a genuine passion for patient care – but also education. They are all keen to continue their personal learning journey throughout their careers and are also looking forward to educating others to “go about their life in the most healthiest way.” (Thanks, Vivianne!)
As fellow learning voyagers, this is a great opportunity to reflect on what practices we are all using when educating the next generation of professionals. Are we connecting their assessment with their learning – and ultimately who they will be? Are we providing them with the understanding of the purpose of reflective learning and why it is important? Can we help them connect dots, learn from examples, share our own experiences, and provide further opportunities to learn more and be creative?
My key takeaway from this experience with these talented students is to continue striving to make learning purposeful and understand the why through making connections and communication. (Oh yeah, sense-making! Who knew?😉)
• For inspiring portfolios to share with your students, head here.
